1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus having exterior covers, and more particularly, to an exterior cover connecting structure of an image pickup apparatus such as a digital camera or a digital video camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic apparatus such as an image pickup apparatus has exterior covers. For example, a digital video camera shown in FIGS. 16A and 16B has a main unit 201 that is covered by a front cover unit 202, an upper cover unit 203, a left cover unit 204, and a right cover unit 205.
To assemble the cover units 202-205 to the main unit 201, the front and left cover units 202, 204 are assembled to the main unit 201 in this order as shown by arrows A, B in FIG. 16A. Then, the upper cover unit 203 is assembled to the main unit 201 as shown by arrow C.
During the assembly of the cover units 201-204, electrical components provided in the cover units 202-204 are electrically connected to electrical components of the main unit 201 by using e.g. FPCs. Then, the cover units 202-204 are fixed to the main unit 201 by screws.
Subsequently, the right cover unit 205 having a grip belt 207 for use by a user to hold the camera is rigidly fixed to the main unit 201 by screws 206, as shown by arrow D in FIG. 16B.
In a video camera having the above-described construction, there has been known a cover connecting structure in which covers are assembled while overlapping with one another. For example, a drip-proof protection cover is disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 8-15771. With such a cover connecting structure, the design and drip-proof of the covers can be ensured.
However, with the above-described prior art, the cover units 202-205 are fixed by using a large number of screws and therefore assembly man-hours increase. Since head portions of the screws 206 for fixing the right cover unit 205 to the main unit 201 are exposed to the outside, the appearance design of the video camera is impaired.